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Acea said in the paper that despite Brexit, cars sold in the UK should be counted towards calculating the average CO2 emissions of manufacturers' fleets in 2020. If not, it said the commission "must review" the targets.

According to environmental campaigner Greg Archer, the lobby group was "desperate" to find a way for its members to avoid the hefty fines associated with missing the targets.

Last year, the PA Consulting company estimated that Volkswagen, BMW, Hyundai-Kia, Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot-Citroen and Ford were likely to miss their targets. It said that some companies could face fines of over €1bn.

Brexit

The United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the EU in March 2019, before the compliance date of the CO2 rules.

However, Acea wants cars sold in the UK to count towards the fleet average – because hybrid and electric cars are popular there.

"Compliance with the highly challenging limits set by European Union for 2020, was based on data from all 28 member states," said Acea secretary-general Erik Jonnaert at a recent press briefing in Brussels.

"So excluding UK data from the CO2 calculations will force manufacturers to reassess long-held fleet average targets based on the EU-28 data," he added.

Jonnaert stressed there was a difference in popularity of low-emission vehicles between western and eastern European countries.

"It just happens to be that in some markets – and this includes the UK, it's not only the UK obviously – you have a market environment which facilitates the uptake of these alternative power trains, which of course then makes it easier to reach your targets," he said.

"We are asked to produce the vehicles ...the question is then: is the market following? You cannot push it down people's throats," he noted.

But while Jonnaert stressed that carmakers were committed to achieving the targets, the official position paper said that "should the European Commission exclude [UK] data from fleet-average calculations, then the commission must review the target of 95gCO2/km for passenger cars".

'Desperate'

"Acea are desperate to find any way to let carmakers off their CO2 targets that were agreed a decade ago and don't come into force fully until 2021," said Archer, clean vehicles campaigner for the Transport & Environment group.

"The reality is the effects of excluding UK sales data are small and some carmakers gain whilst others lose," he added.

Indeed, the average figure for the UK in 2016 was 120.1 grammes/km – higher than the EU average.

But even beyond that, Acea's argument that a review of the target is required if the composition of the EU changes, does not hold up.

The 95 grammes target dates back to a 2009 regulation, and has its origins in a European Parliament resolution from 2007, when Croatia was not yet a member state.

The eastern European country's accession in 2013 has not been a reason for the EU to change the target, which applies to the entire EU.

Foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel was not the only German government official trying to water down an EU draft bill on CO2 emissions from passenger vehicles last year. In fact, three Berlin ministries were contradicting each other behind the scenes.

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'You can't reduce your CO2 emissions if you don't have targets in place,' says MEP Miriam Dalli. She will tell the European Parliament on Wednesday cars should be 50 percent cleaner by 2030, whilst the Commission proposed 30 percent.

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